{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/105/1050979.htm","path":"chr/ecf/105/1050979.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/105/1050979.htm","text":"Chapter 45 [XXIII]\u2014The Reason Why One Person is Assisted by Grace, and Another is Not Helped, Must Be Referred to the Secret Judgments of God.\nYou must refer the matter, then, to the hidden determinations of God, when you see, in one and the same condition, such as all infants unquestionably have,\u2014who derive their hereditary evil from Adam,\u2014that one is assisted so as to be baptized, and another is not assisted, so that he dies in his very bondage; and again, that one baptized person is left and forsaken in his present life, who God foreknew would be ungodly, while another baptized person is taken away from this life, \u201clest that wickedness should alter his understanding;\u201d 3221 and be sure that you do not in such cases ascribe unrighteousness or unwisdom to God, in whom is the very fountain of righteousness and wisdom, but, as I have exhorted you from the commencement of this treatise, \u201cwhereto you have already attained, walk therein,\u201d 3222 and \u201ceven this shall God reveal unto you,\u201d 3223 \u2014if not in this life, yet certainly in the next, \u201cfor there is nothing covered that shall not be revealed.\u201d 3224 When, therefore, you hear the Lord say, \u201cI the Lord have deceived that prophet,\u201d 3225 and likewise what the apostle says: \u201cHe hath mercy on whom He will have mercy, and whom He will He hardeneth,\u201d 3226 believe that, in the case of him whom He permits to be deceived and hardened, his evil deeds have deserved the judgment; whilst in the case of him to whom He shows mercy, you should loyally and unhesitatingly recognise the grace of the God who \u201crendereth not evil for evil; but contrariwise blessing.\u201d 3227 Nor should you take away from Pharaoh free will, because in several passages God says, \u201cI have hardened Pharaoh;\u201d or,\u201d I have hardened or I will harden Pharaoh\u2019s heart;\u201d 3228 for it does not by any means follow that Pharaoh did not, on this account, harden his own heart. For this, too, is said of him, after the removal of the fly-plague from the Egyptians, in these words of the Scripture: \u201cAnd Pharaoh hardened his heart at this time also; neither would he let the people go.\u201d 3229 Thus it was that both God hardened him by His just judgment, and Pharaoh by his own free will. Be ye then well assured that your labour will never be in vain, if, setting before you a good purpose, you persevere in it to the last. For God, who fails to render, according to their deeds, only to those whom He liberates, will then \u201crecompense every man according to his works.\u201d 3230 God will, therefore, certainly recompense both evil for evil, because He is just; and good for evil, because He is good; and good for good, because He is good and just; only, evil for good He will never recompense, because He is not unjust. He will, therefore, recompense evil for evil\u2014punishment for unrighteousness; and He will recompense good for evil\u2014grace for unrighteousness; and He will recompense good for good\u2014grace for grace.\nSee Exod. 4:21, Exod. 7:3, Exod. 14:4.\n464:3229 464:3230","title":"Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Vol. V: A Treatise on Gra...","type":"page"}